|
Hart made some progress in the early 1950s but not much. There were two more "imperfect seasons" when Hart did not
win a game.
Some of the newspaper coverage was very funny. In the years when the varsity was truly awful, the front-page headline
and the bulk of the article often was about the JV game. Sometimes it was very difficult to even find the varsity score or
to figure out who won. Here are a couple of the headlines from 1954: "Injuns hold league leading Cougars [Ventura] to
26-13 victory" "Indians hold AV to 14-8 win." Who won those games? They were both Hart losses.
The descriptions were sometimes very archaic and not particularly politically correct. The team was referred to as the
"Injuns" with great frequency along with the "Savages", "Heathens", "Tribe", etc.
The cheerleaders were the "Indianettes". Interestingly, the colors back then were "gray and maroon."
Before the 1950 season, the coach noted there was a shortage of equipment because the Korean War, which had started that
summer, was consuming all the sponge rubber.
There were very few pictures in the paper in the early years. The most notable is a picture on the front page of the
Signal on October 23, 1953, of a player leaping at the camera, spread-eagled (sort of sky-diver like), horizontal to the
ground, wearing a maskless helmet and the lumpy pads of the day. Apparently he was the only kid he would do (it probably
wasn't much fun landing "splat" on the turf with that padding). The player: an offensive end named Joe Kapp. Kapp
was the quarterback the next season, went on to Cal where he lead the Bears to the Rose Bowl. He then played in the CFL for
several years going to the Grey Cup and finished his professional career with the Minnesota Vikings, leading the team to the
Super Bowl in 1970.
It's surprising how few kids were playing football at Hart. In 1951 there were only 21 kids on the team. A few years
later a game was canceled because about 10 kids had the flu so there were not enough players to field a team. But then, there
were far fewer students. Hart did not have 500 students until 1955. The school passed the 600 mark in 1957, the first year
that it had over 100 seniors on campus. Another striking thing is the dropout rate, averaging around 30% a year (with the
football team losing kids mid-season on many occasions).
Here are the season records for 1950 through 1954:
1950 (0-7-1)
Hart was in the Ventura League in 1950
|
Date
|
Location
|
Opponent
|
Score
|
|
09-22-1950
|
BHS
|
Burroughs-Ridgecrest
|
0-39
|
|
09-29-1950
|
Hart
|
Carpenteria
|
0-48
|
|
10-06-1950
|
Hart
|
Black-Foxe Military Academy
|
19-19
|
|
10-13-1950
|
Hart
|
Oxnard
|
6-65
|
|
10-20-1950
|
Lancaster
|
Lancaster (now Antelope Valley)
|
0-14
|
|
10-27-1950
|
Hart
|
Ventura
|
0-27
|
|
11-03-1950
|
FHS
|
Fillmore
|
19-25
|
|
11-10-1950
|
SPHS
|
Santa Paula
|
6-62
|
1951 (0-8)
Another "Imperfect" Season
Hart was still in the Ventura League. There were only 21 players on the team and about 330 in the school.
|
Date
|
Location
|
Opponent
|
Score
|
|
09-21-1951
|
Hart
|
Burroughs-Ridgecrest
|
20-31
|
|
09-28-1951
|
CCHS
|
Culver City
|
7-12
|
|
10-05-1951
|
Leuzinger
|
Hawthorne
|
0-7
|
|
10-12-1951
|
Hart
|
Santa Paula
|
0-40
|
|
10-19-1951
|
OHS
|
Oxnard
|
2-26
|
|
10-26-1951
|
Hart
|
Antelope Valley
|
12-31
|
|
11-02-1951
|
VHS
|
Ventura
|
0-52
|
|
11-02-1951
|
Hart
|
Fillmore
|
0-19
|
1952 (3-4-1)
Still in the Ventura League, Hart had 27 players on the team and 367 enrolled in the school.
|
Date
|
Location
|
Opponent
|
Score
|
|
09-19-1952
|
Hart
|
Harvard Military Academy
|
19-12
|
|
09-25-1952
|
Hart
|
Hawthorne
|
2-7
|
|
10-04-1952
|
MHS
|
Morningside
|
7-0
|
|
10-10-1952
|
FHS
|
Fillmore
|
7-33
|
|
10-17-1952
|
SPHS
|
Santa Paula
|
0-35
|
|
10-24-1952
|
Hart
|
Oxnard
|
7-26
|
|
10-31-1952
|
AVHS
|
Antelope Valley
|
28-12
|
|
11-07-1952
|
Hart
|
Ventura
|
6-6
|
|
11-15-1952
|
Home
|
Junipero Serra
|
Cancelled
|
1953 (2-6)
Hart was still in the Ventura League with 400 students in the school. Joe Kapp was an end.
|
Date
|
Location
|
Opponent
|
Score
|
|
09-19-1953
|
CHS
|
Corona
|
18-7
|
|
09-26-1953
|
Hart
|
Notre Dame
|
7-14
|
|
10-09-1953
|
VHS
|
Ventura
|
7-0
|
|
10-16-1953
|
Hart
|
Fillmore
|
0-26
|
|
10-23-1953
|
Hart
|
Santa Paula
|
6-26
|
|
10-30-1953
|
OHS
|
Oxnard
|
0-7
|
|
11-06-1953
|
Hart
|
Antelope Valley
|
18-19
|
|
11-13-1953
|
Hart
|
San Fernando
|
0-38
|
1954 (4-5)
Hart was in the Ventura League and had 460 students.
Joe Kapp was the quarteback in 1954. He went on to Cal where he played both basketball and football and led the Bears to
the Rose Bowl and played on one of the Bears' better basketball teams. From there he went to the Canadian Football team and
led the British Columbia team to a Grey Cup championship. He led Minnesota to the Super Bowl in 1970. He also coached at
Cal, was the PAC-10 coach of the year and was the head man when Cal had the famous 5-lateral kickoff return to beat Stanford
in 1984. He was a far better basketball player at Hart than QB. As near as I can tell, his best day as a quarterback was
9 for 17 against Ventura. It appears he was a fair runner and defensive back but had no more than 1 TD pass in a game. He
did score in a myriad of ways though including running, throwing, an 80-yard kickoff return, an interception and a tackle
for a safety.
|
Date
|
Location
|
Opponent
|
Score
|
|
09-24-1954
|
CHS
|
Carpenteria
|
10-0
|
|
10-01-1954
|
Hart
|
Birmingham
|
52-0
|
|
10-08-1954
|
CHS
|
Claremont
|
7-28
|
|
10-15-1954
|
Hart
|
Valencia
|
26-6
|
|
10-22-1954
|
AVHS
|
Antelope Valley
|
8-14
|
|
10-29-1954
|
Hart
|
Ventura
|
13-16
|
|
11-05-1954
|
FHS
|
Fillmore
|
24-6
|
|
11-12-1954
|
SPHS
|
Santa Paula
|
6-20
|
|
11-19-1954
|
Hart
|
Oxnard
|
6-39
|
|
